Bullet resistant vests are standard equipment for the members of most state and local police departments. These vests are made of a fabric shell, usually of a woven material, containing compartments in which are carried panels of impact absorbing anti ballistic material such as that known Kevlar.RTM., which is a registered trademark of E. I. dupont, Inc. Other such materials are known as Spectra.RTM., a registered trademark of Allied Signal, Inc. and Twaron.RTM., a registered trademark of Akzo, Inc. The vests are designed so that the torso of the wearer is surrounded, at least from the neck to the waist, with a layer of the protective panels.
Routine police usage of these vests subjects the police officer to considerable inconvenience and discomfort. This usage requires the police officer to wear the vest throughout the entire workday, usually beneath the shirt of the standard police uniform. The vests are stiff and constantly shift from their desired position, requiring constant readjustment by the police officers wearing them.
In the line of ordinary duty, the police officer is highly active: walking, reaching, bending, twisting, and stretching while patrolling, entering and leaving vehicles, dealing with suspects and other members of the public in rendering assistance, dealing with disturbances, making arrests and other routine activities. In the course of such duty, vest panels that are only moderately flexible but inelastic, and that will bend somewhat but will not stretch, do not conform to the shape of the police officer's body as it moves over the course of the day.
In the design of the vests, various straps, ties and tails have been incorporated to retain the generally protective arrangement of the panels and to fit the vest assembly to the body of the wearer. These have not been effective to hold the vest in place throughout the police officer's work day. The common experience of the police officer wearing these vests is that they tend to move upward on the body around the neck of the wearer, exposing much of the police officer's midsection above the waist. The vests also twist in relation to the police officer's body and outer clothing. This limits the protection that the vest provides and requires the wearer to take the time at frequent intervals throughout the day for readjustment of the vest and the clothing.
More elaborate strapping attachments have been proposed for such protective garments when used in military applications, particularly by those confined to vehicles such as combat aircraft and land vehicles, but these designs have not been suitable for the day to day use by a police officer.
Thus, there is a need for an anchoring system for ballistic resistant vests worn by police officers in every day duty that retains proper protective positions of the impact resistant panels, accommodating the mobility of wearer, and preserves the comfort and neatness of the vest throughout the day.